DRAFT UNIT - In progress building this unit. By Barbara Bilgre
Please use the Discussion area (on the upper right above, next to the Edit button) to comment on any or all of the unit activities. You can start a new post.
To access the Discussion area, click on the symbol to the right of the Edit box. This brings you to the discussion page. You can either click on a discussion that has already been started by someone else or click New Post to start your own discussion.
I am currently testing this new unit in my APES class. Feel free to download the documents. I will outline what I am doing with the students on this page.
I started the unit by sharing a guiding question with the students and then showing them the film 'Hope in a Changing Climate' about reforestation efforts and eradication of poverty on the Loess Plateau of China and in Rwanda and Ethiopia. HopeinaChangingClimateGuidingQuestion.docx
Our school has a partnership this year with Heifer International. We were fortunate to have the CEO, Pierre Ferrari, come and speak with our entire school. We are helping to raise funds for as many 'arks' as possible and to educate our local community about the efforts of Heifer.
I used this opportunity to have the students research Heifer. I had them look at the mission and goals of the organization, what others had to say about the organization (both positive and negative) and I had them review information on the charity on 'Charity Navigator' and 'Better Business Bureau'. I had them choose a 'similar' charity to Heifer as listed at the bottom of the 'Charity Navigator' website that ranked higher than Heifer. The kids had to compare them and decide if the organization they chose truly did the same things as Heifer. I do this to provide students the opportunity to consider different perspectives, and not to make blind judgements about 'good' or 'bad' organizations without having researched them themselves.
This activity was followed up with a modified 'Hunger Banquet', an Oxfam activity. Instead of actually having food, I ran the banquet, in a double class period. I used print outs of the high income, middle income and low income meals. Since I have small classes, I had to adapt the number of students who fit in each of those categories.
This is the script I used for my activity (modified from Oxfam): HungerBanquetScript&Dishes.docx
The students and I followed up with a discussion on what leads to hunger, what food security is, how do people end up in their lot in life, etc.
This is a copy of the 'debriefing' notes from the activities: Heifer&HungerBanquet.pdf
I wanted my students to see that poverty was also an issue in the U.S. Some of my students think that while not all, many people living below the poverty line are there for a reason. They think there shouldn't be too much difficulty for people to get themselves out of poverty in the U.S. with all the opportunities available to them. So, my thrust at a difference in perspective is to show the Morgan Spurlock episdode of '30 Days' on minimum wage. I've used this video 3 different years, and it never ceases to amaze me how impactful it is on the kids. The episode can be found on YouTube. I think it is in 5 parts.
I then broke the kids into pairs to fill out the following worksheet taking into consideration both films they saw (HCC and 30 Days). HCC30Days3PDIP Worksheet.doc
... and we followed it up with a discussion and sharing of ideas for the 6 areas.
Next we moved on to an activity considering subsistence farming in Senegal in West Africa (done during a double lesson). I modified the activity I used from two sources: Facing the Future 'Farming for the Future' activity and the Peace Corps 'Growing Challenge in Senegal' activity. I start with the Peace Corp activity.It is a Web Quest with a worksheet.
Background and activity instructions can be found here: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/lesson.cfm?lpid=2481
(Worksheets and WebQuest are available from links on this site.)
The kids are put into teams of 3 or 4 and represent a village in Senegal. Before we start, I ask the kids what desertification is, and we discuss factors that contribute to it. We watch the video together and I talk to them about some things in the film and make sure they understand terms like fallow. I have the kids discuss some of the ideas, and I point out that two women interviewed contradicted each other about the quality of a particular kind of soil. The video talks about the village growing rice up until the mid-1970s, so I ask the students what type of environment rice grows in. It's pretty shocking for them to realize that rice is a wetland crop but the village is now in a semi-arid region. I go on to point out that these Senegalese farmers have traditional knowledge that they use in developing their planting plans, and that the Peace Corp volunteers respected that and worked with the farmers on that knowledge, but that the PC also brought new information to the villagers to help them maintain nutrient levels in their soil.
After students have developed their 3 Year Planting Plan, I bring in the 'Farming for the Future' part of the activity.
This is the handout I made with instructions for the PC, but with the added FftF activity. GrowingChallengeinSenegal.docx
Students can fill out the first column. I then role a 'virtual' die (3 times - one for each year) as the 'Weather Goddess' to determine if the year is dry (1, 2, 3 or 4) or is wet (5, 6). We discuss why dry is represented by more numbers.
The kids have to calculate their total yield before impact. I then use cards (that I modified) from the FthF activity and each group picks one for each year. Some impacts are negative (war, global warming, crop disease, debt repayment, AIDS, overpopulation) and the village loses crop units. Other impacts are positive (health center, ditch digging, well development, literacy program, farming cooperative) and the village may gain crop units. Some impact cards affect only the village that picked while others impact ALL villages. The students also have to calculate any malnutrition loss in the village after the impact has taken place (there is a table for that). The kids then see how they do each year, and overall with their crop-rotation and intercropping plan in the face of the realities of living in West Africa. This leads to a discussion of what the lesson was about.
I then tested my students' abilities to make connections (they are not very good at this) by giving them an article on the major Chinese Reforestation Efforts. I simply asked them to write a response paragraph to the article. China’s Reforestation Programs Big Success or Just an Illusion?.pdf
(Only about 5 out of my 22 students actually talked about the efforts on the Loess Plateau that they learned about in 'Hope in a Changing Climate.)
The next step was to consider Deforestation. I start with an activity (Double lesson) I found online about habitat fragmentation of the Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. (I modified it only a little.) CRDeforestationActivityTeacherNotes.docx CRDeforestationActivity.doc
By Barbara Bilgre
Please use the Discussion area (on the upper right above, next to the Edit button) to comment on any or all of the unit activities. You can start a new post.
To access the Discussion area, click on the symbol to the right of the Edit box. This brings you to the discussion page. You can either click on a discussion that has already been started by someone else or click New Post to start your own discussion.
I am currently testing this new unit in my APES class. Feel free to download the documents. I will outline what I am doing with the students on this page.
The following is the Unit Sheet I gave to the student before we started the unit.
HopeinChangingClimateEQV.doc
I started the unit by sharing a guiding question with the students and then showing them the film 'Hope in a Changing Climate' about reforestation efforts and eradication of poverty on the Loess Plateau of China and in Rwanda and Ethiopia.
HopeinaChangingClimateGuidingQuestion.docx
The film can be found at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK8z0qDtE2g
Our school has a partnership this year with Heifer International. We were fortunate to have the CEO, Pierre Ferrari, come and speak with our entire school. We are helping to raise funds for as many 'arks' as possible and to educate our local community about the efforts of Heifer.
I used this opportunity to have the students research Heifer. I had them look at the mission and goals of the organization, what others had to say about the organization (both positive and negative) and I had them review information on the charity on 'Charity Navigator' and 'Better Business Bureau'. I had them choose a 'similar' charity to Heifer as listed at the bottom of the 'Charity Navigator' website that ranked higher than Heifer. The kids had to compare them and decide if the organization they chose truly did the same things as Heifer. I do this to provide students the opportunity to consider different perspectives, and not to make blind judgements about 'good' or 'bad' organizations without having researched them themselves.
This activity was followed up with a modified 'Hunger Banquet', an Oxfam activity. Instead of actually having food, I ran the banquet, in a double class period. I used print outs of the high income, middle income and low income meals. Since I have small classes, I had to adapt the number of students who fit in each of those categories.
This is the script I used for my activity (modified from Oxfam):
HungerBanquetScript&Dishes.docx
You can find more information about it here:
http://actfast.oxfamamerica.org/index.php/events/banquet
The students and I followed up with a discussion on what leads to hunger, what food security is, how do people end up in their lot in life, etc.
This is a copy of the 'debriefing' notes from the activities:
Heifer&HungerBanquet.pdf
I wanted my students to see that poverty was also an issue in the U.S. Some of my students think that while not all, many people living below the poverty line are there for a reason. They think there shouldn't be too much difficulty for people to get themselves out of poverty in the U.S. with all the opportunities available to them. So, my thrust at a difference in perspective is to show the Morgan Spurlock episdode of '30 Days' on minimum wage. I've used this video 3 different years, and it never ceases to amaze me how impactful it is on the kids. The episode can be found on YouTube. I think it is in 5 parts.
I then broke the kids into pairs to fill out the following worksheet taking into consideration both films they saw (HCC and 30 Days).
HCC30Days3PDIP Worksheet.doc
... and we followed it up with a discussion and sharing of ideas for the 6 areas.
Next we moved on to an activity considering subsistence farming in Senegal in West Africa (done during a double lesson). I modified the activity I used from two sources: Facing the Future 'Farming for the Future' activity and the Peace Corps 'Growing Challenge in Senegal' activity. I start with the Peace Corp activity.It is a Web Quest with a worksheet.
Background and activity instructions can be found here:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/lesson.cfm?lpid=2481
(Worksheets and WebQuest are available from links on this site.)
The kids are put into teams of 3 or 4 and represent a village in Senegal. Before we start, I ask the kids what desertification is, and we discuss factors that contribute to it. We watch the video together and I talk to them about some things in the film and make sure they understand terms like fallow. I have the kids discuss some of the ideas, and I point out that two women interviewed contradicted each other about the quality of a particular kind of soil. The video talks about the village growing rice up until the mid-1970s, so I ask the students what type of environment rice grows in. It's pretty shocking for them to realize that rice is a wetland crop but the village is now in a semi-arid region. I go on to point out that these Senegalese farmers have traditional knowledge that they use in developing their planting plans, and that the Peace Corp volunteers respected that and worked with the farmers on that knowledge, but that the PC also brought new information to the villagers to help them maintain nutrient levels in their soil.
After students have developed their 3 Year Planting Plan, I bring in the 'Farming for the Future' part of the activity.
This is the handout I made with instructions for the PC, but with the added FftF activity.
GrowingChallengeinSenegal.docx
Students can fill out the first column. I then role a 'virtual' die (3 times - one for each year) as the 'Weather Goddess' to determine if the year is dry (1, 2, 3 or 4) or is wet (5, 6). We discuss why dry is represented by more numbers.
The kids have to calculate their total yield before impact. I then use cards (that I modified) from the FthF activity and each group picks one for each year. Some impacts are negative (war, global warming, crop disease, debt repayment, AIDS, overpopulation) and the village loses crop units. Other impacts are positive (health center, ditch digging, well development, literacy program, farming cooperative) and the village may gain crop units. Some impact cards affect only the village that picked while others impact ALL villages. The students also have to calculate any malnutrition loss in the village after the impact has taken place (there is a table for that). The kids then see how they do each year, and overall with their crop-rotation and intercropping plan in the face of the realities of living in West Africa. This leads to a discussion of what the lesson was about.
I then tested my students' abilities to make connections (they are not very good at this) by giving them an article on the major Chinese Reforestation Efforts. I simply asked them to write a response paragraph to the article.
China’s Reforestation Programs Big Success or Just an Illusion?.pdf
(Only about 5 out of my 22 students actually talked about the efforts on the Loess Plateau that they learned about in 'Hope in a Changing Climate.)
The next step was to consider Deforestation. I start with an activity (Double lesson) I found online about habitat fragmentation of the Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. (I modified it only a little.)
CRDeforestationActivityTeacherNotes.docx
CRDeforestationActivity.doc
This was followed up with homework reading an article on Deforestation and filling out a Directed Reading Guide.
ConsideringDeforestationWS.docx
Tropical Deforestation NASAEarthObservatory.pdf
And then I am having the students do an online research activity about Deforestation of a specific area.
ConsideringDeforestationCaseStudyWS.docx
And the kids will be quizzed on the material.